By DAVID GREEN 

Some odd things have happened to the Pledge of Allegiance in the hundred-odd years since it was written.

More recently, changes in Washington have left the Pledge looking somewhat misguided.

Francis Bellamy, a pastor with a socialist bent, wrote the Pledge in 1892. He wanted to incorporate the word “equality,” but as head of a national education committee, he knew that school superintendents wouldn’t welcome the word since they were opposed to equality for women and African Americans. The nation wasn’t yet ready for that.

In the 1920s, Bellamy’s original pledge was altered by the National Flag Conference. He had written, “I pledge allegiance to my flag...” and conferees saw fit to make that “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America” so immigrants would know to which flag to make the pledge.

For the first few decades of its existence, the Pledge was recited by school children as they placed a hand over the heart for the first phrase, then extended the arm outward with the palm facing up. With the rise of Nazism and Fascism, the hand was soon kept in place over the heart.

In 1954, following a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, the words “under God” were added, giving the Pledge the tone of a public prayer.

The problem now isn’t with changes to the Pledge; instead it’s changes in the country to whose flag we’re pledging. It’s that last line of the Pledge that’s suffering, the statement about “liberty and justice for all.”

On Sept. 25 of this year, Congress and the Senate approved legislation that no longer guarantees liberty and justice. At the President’s discretion, a person can be imprisoned indefinitely without charge, without trial, without entitlement to legal consultation. A review tribunal is required, yet there’s no time limit attached. A hearing could be delayed indefinitely.

More than two centuries ago people fought for the inalienable rights that would later be transformed into our Constitution, making America a beacon of democracy, liberty and justice. The light has been dimmed. Indefinite detention without legal recourse is an affront to American values.

Now, unfortunately, the Pledge must end with the words “liberty and justice for some.”